A defense unit that includes military, anti-terrorist operators and police and/or other operators that have to perform high risk missions need to be provided armor and load bearing gear equipped with ammunition and other equipment. Items can include bullets, gun magazines and hand grenades, water containers etc. that are required while in combat against the enemy. Equipment may include communication means, navigation means, binoculars, portable lighting units and whatever other items that can be foreseen to be of assistance in a mission.
Further, apart from ammunition and the equipment, the operators may want to carry along first aid kits that include medicine and surgical tools required in state of emergency. Thus, some operators may need to carry multiple items mentioned above for a mission. To carry these items, vests, carriers and chest rigs can be designed with pouches. Pouches are fabricated of cotton canvas and/or nylon fabrics to carry a particular size or type of military item. Typically, a pouch has an open mouth which is covered with a flap using a buckle, hook and loop closures and/or any other fastening technique. The pouches are mounted on the waist belt, backpacks and/or garment worn by the operator.
To carry these items, carriers, and chest rigs are also designed with Pouch Attachment Ladder System (PALS) grid also referred to as a MOLLE (Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment) grid, is a grid of webbing used to attach smaller equipment onto load-bearing platforms, such as vests and backpacks. PALS/MOLLE can be used to attach items such as holsters, magazine pouches, radio pouches, knife sheathes, and other gear. A wide variety of pouches are commercially available, allowing operators to customize their kit. PALS/MOLLE consists of webbing sewn onto the load-bearing equipment and corresponding webbing and straps on the attachment. The straps are interwoven between the webbing on each of two pieces and finally snapped and/or secured into place, making for a very secure fit which can be detached with moderate effort. New types MOLLE/PALS grids are cut out of a single piece fabric rather than webbing straps sewn onto fabric can also be used.
The load carrying armor vest and carrier is designed like a strength training weighted vest having multiple pockets for mounting pouches for carrying various items. The pockets can be provided on the entire surface of the armor vest and/or in combination with PALS/MOLLE or vests can be made with only PALS/MOLLE. The modern armor vest can also include a cummerbund that is specifically designed to carry more equipment and/or body armor. Cummerbunds can also help to distribute weight for the vest on some vests and provide more space to carry added gear and equipment.
FIG. 1 illustrates a load carrying armor carrier (100), in accordance with an embodiment of a prior art. As shown in FIG. 1, the load carrying armor carrier (100) contains multiple slots (102) and/or cuts on the entire surface of the armor carrier (100), including the cummerbund (104), to allow mounting of pouches to any corresponding MOLLE/PALS slot on the surface of the carrier. Although the slots (102) are illustrated as being horizontal in the figures, this is merely for exemplary purposes. According to an embodiment any mention of slots (102) in the present disclosure may be horizontal and/or vertical and/or in a plurality of angles with a plurality of shapes for the slots. The slots (102) are typically provided with cuts in order to maintain the strength and load bearing capacity such that the cuts do not tear off while mounting a pouch.
However, a problem that occurs with a typical load carrying armor carrier (100) is that the cummerbund (104) is fastened with the armor carrier (100) using a mechanical release mechanism (106) such as a buckling arrangement and/or a Tubes™ release apparatus, embodiments of which are disclosed in detail in a US Patent Publication No. 2014/0332572 that is hereby incorporated by reference in the present application. Further, the release mechanism (106) includes a plastic material fastener connected to the cummerbund (104) using a fabric, webbing and/or nylon connector stitched with the cummerbund (104). The release mechanism (106), being a plastic part, does not allow mounting of any pouches on it, thereby decreasing the load carrying capacity of the armor carrier, particularly at places that can easily be reached by the user. Another problem is that because both sides of the armor carrier are covered by the release mechanism, these areas can be rendered weak and/or unprotected. However, the release mechanism (106) is to be held on the abdomen area of the body and thus should not be left unprotected.
In light of the discussion above, there is clearly a need in the art for a better load bearing solution that does not suffer from the above mentioned deficiencies.